{"id":117534,"date":"2026-03-02T14:16:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T14:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=117534"},"modified":"2026-03-02T14:16:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T14:16:39","slug":"president-mahama-recalls-having-nightmares-after-his-fathers-detention-following-1966-coup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=117534","title":{"rendered":"President Mahama recalls having nightmares after his father\u2019s detention following 1966 coup"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President John Dramani Mahama has opened up about a deeply personal chapter of his childhood, disclosing that he suffered recurring nightmares as a teenager following the detention of his father in the aftermath of Ghana\u2019s 1966 coup.<\/p>\n

He shared the emotional account while addressing dignitaries at the opening of the 2026 Judicial Year and the 20th anniversary celebration of the African Court on Human and Peoples\u2019 Rights in Arusha, Tanzania.<\/p>\n

The event brought together jurists, legal scholars, policymakers and human rights advocates from across the continent to reflect on the progress and challenges of justice delivery in Africa.<\/p>\n

In a speech underscoring the importance of judicial independence and the protection of human rights, President Mahama recounted the traumatic impact his father\u2019s detention had on him as a young boy.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a teenager, I often dreamt of my father standing before judges awaiting the decision on his fate. He was detained once and faced the risk twice more, and this fear led to recurring nightmares about him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy father was a minister in Kwame Nkrumah\u2019s government, and immediately after the coup, he and others were asked to report to the police station for their own safety. He was interrogated and taken into custody for over a year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy 1974, Ghana experienced another coup led by Colonel I.K. Acheampong. By that time, my father had become a private citizen, working as a rice farmer and agribusinessman with no involvement in politics.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Mahama\u2019s father served as a minister under Ghana\u2019s first President, Kwame Nkrumah, whose government was overthrown on 24 February 1966.<\/p>\n

Following the coup, several officials of the Nkrumah administration were rounded up, interrogated and, in some cases, detained for extended periods.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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President John Dramani Mahama has reflected on a painful episode from his youth, revealing that he endured recurring nightmares as a teenager after his father was detained following Ghana\u2019s 1966 coup.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1951,111,1883,17748,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-117534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hp-news-1","category-mahama","category-national","category-nightmares","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=117534"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117534\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=117534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=117534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=117534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}